1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile receiving device and a method for audio playback in a mobile receiver.
2. Related Art
German Pat. Appl. No. DE 101 11 590 A1 discloses a method and a circuit arrangement for demodulating a Radio Data System (RDS) signal. The RDS has been introduced for very high frequency radio stations to transmit data to a radio receiver. The transmitted data may contain information about the radio stations and the programs broadcasted by them. This data may be displayed on an optical display.
RDS data may include, for example, various forms of information: program identification (PI), which indicates the received program or the name of the tuned-in station; program type identification (PTY), which indicates the type of program received (e.g., music, news, etc.); traffic announcements (TA); or radio text (RT), which may contain program-related information such as information on the pieces of music, artist, program changes, and the like.
The RDS is used principally in conjunction with car radios. For example, when the reception of a station that is currently tuned in deteriorates, RDS-capable car radios may automatically switch over to a better (or best) receivable radio station broadcasting the same program. The information required to perform this switch over to a better radio station is the PI information and a list of alternative frequencies (AF) being broadcast by RDS-capable radio stations. An RDS signal is a binary signal that consists of a continuous binary data stream with a bit rate of 1.1875 kbits/s.
European Pat. Appl. No. EP 1 274 175 A2 discloses a method for checking the reception quality of a station at alternative reception frequencies in a car radio receiver. To make the checking of the reception quality at an alternative reception frequency as inaudible as possible, a substitute signal is utilized while the receiver is tuned to an alternative reception frequency. The substitute signal is utilized instead of muting the car's radio receiver. A noise signal or part of the already playbacked audio signal may be suitable as the substitute signal.
Furthermore, receivers are known that may be connected to the Internet over a wireless connection (e.g., WLAN, UMTS) and receive programs as live streams (Ogg, etc.) over the wireless connection.
United States Pat. App. Pub. No. US 2007/0190928 A1 discloses a method for providing content to a device. A discovery module may be used to generate playlists of the content of a database that are similar to the channels received by the device from content providers. If the content received includes a channel dedicated to jazz music, for example, then the discovery module may generate a playlist from the content of the database that may be similar to the channel dedicated to jazz music. When the device loses the satellite signal, the device may begin playing an appropriate playlist. The discovery module includes a scanning engine, a playlist module, and a content loading module. The playlist module may be based on programming associated with a content provider. The playlist module may be updated or modified at any time. A satellite radio content provider may provide multiple channels of content. The playlist module may be based on the programming style of the channels generated and transmitted by the content provider. The programming style of the channels may be embodied as rules. The rules themselves may be updated as the content of the database or channels change with time.
In view of the foregoing, there is an ongoing need for providing improved receiving devices and methods for playback in mobile receivers. In particular, there is a need for providing receiving devices and methods of playback that reduce or eliminate interruptions in audio playback when disturbances occur in the reception of a currently received audio signal.